CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) Director William Shepard Acquires 325 Shares

CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) Director William Shepard acquired 325 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 25th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $230.57 per share, for a total transaction of $74,935.25. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 260,442 shares in the company, valued at $60,050,111.94. This represents a 0.12% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website.

CME Group Stock Down 1.1%

CME opened at $218.58 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $79.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 0.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.02. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $271.58 and a 200 day moving average price of $285.49. CME Group Inc. has a twelve month low of $218.31 and a twelve month high of $329.16.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $3.36 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.11 by $0.25. CME Group had a return on equity of 15.42% and a net margin of 63.19%.The company had revenue of $1.88 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.77 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.80 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 12.28 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 9th were paid a $1.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 9th. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.37%.

Institutional Trading of CME Group

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of CME Group during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,523,241,000. Sanders Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of CME Group in the third quarter valued at about $1,006,932,000. Strive Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in CME Group during the third quarter worth about $636,487,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its position in CME Group by 746.4% during the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,049,649 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $559,720,000 after buying an additional 1,807,491 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE increased its stake in CME Group by 39.1% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 4,019,944 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,187,290,000 after acquiring an additional 1,130,587 shares during the period. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CME has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised shares of CME Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $316.00 to $323.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 11th. Argus reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of CME Group in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Weiss Ratings lowered CME Group from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on CME Group from $266.00 to $271.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their target price on CME Group from $342.00 to $322.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, CME Group presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $302.24.

CME Group Company Profile

CME Group Inc is a global markets company that operates some of the world’s largest and most liquid derivatives exchanges, including the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and COMEX. The firm offers futures and options contracts across a broad range of asset classes — including interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural commodities and metals — and serves a diverse client base of institutional investors, commercial hedgers, brokers and retail participants.

The company’s core services include electronic trading on the CME Globex platform, central clearing through CME Clearing, and distribution of market data, indexes and analytics.